Tuesday, December 25, 2007

No, we're not back home -- we're at the Holiday Inn.. and Ben is sleeping for now, but he still has the crud; he didn't keep down any of what he ate at the Christmas Buffet at the Casino (the only thing in town open other than Denny's).

[In case you haven't heard -- our furnace died at some point while we were gone - our pipes froze and burst, and it's a big mess..]

Monday, December 24, 2007

So what Pete failed to mention in the earlier blog - is that I too was ill -- so Take 3:

Twas the Eve of Christmas Eve and we weren't so well,Everywhere we went was a terrible smell.When we were nestled all snug in our beds,Pete started dancing straight to the head;From under the door there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what as the matter.The smell was so horrible it hit with a flash, I tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.When the odor finally slowedI walked back in and looked below When, what to my wondering eyes should appearMy darling husband looking scared like a baby deer With a little air freshener to spray real quick,I knew in a moment he must have gotten sick. More rapid than eagles his curses they came,"Damn that evil woman" as he called my mom by name;So on Cupid on Comet and everywhere we went there were piles of Vomit.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

On Tuesday we drove up from Davilla to Winters to spend the night with "Aunt Maybe" (Tricia) on our way towards Abilene and Hawley. Ben had fun playing with the little red wagon they got him for Christmas, and the next day we headed in to Abilene to meet Nana-Mom for lunch. Unfortunately, Nana-mom could not eat any of her chicken salad sandwich, because her tummy didn't feel very well...

We spent a few days visiting with Nana-Mom and Pa, and Misty and her two girls Kayla and Cate. Ben had a blast running around after those girls, holding their hands, giving them squeezes, etc.

Now, onto Ben's "first". We all went out to dinner Friday night.. (Nana-Mom, Pa, Aunt Maybe, Cousin Jenn, Uncle Billy, Aunt Starr, Cousins Ryan and Dakota, and Misty Kayla and Cate.) ... and Ben told us when we got there he had an "Owie". When we asked where he hurt - he pointed to his back and to his Belly... and about the time we got settled in at the table, he puked all over Mom. Yeap, at 2 1/4 years, Ben had his first vomit. And boy was that fun.. Cause he took several turns puking on mom and dad all night and the next day...

He seems to be feeling better now, although he didn't ate anything all day except for a few crackers.. He is certainly a good sport at being sick -- it doesn't seem to bother him much except for a few moments before it is about to hit -- then when he's done it's right back to playtime...Well -- that's all for now --- hope everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday..

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Yesterday we eased our way down to Texas - after a very stressful drive through a snowy Kansas and a frozen Oklahoma, it was good to see sunshine and warmer temps as we crossed the state line.. We picked up cousins Matt and Britt and drove on down to Davilla where we met up with the rest of the insane asylum escapees. The fish fry was fun, but the best part was hanging out with all the kids.. ben took to matt like a tick on a dog.. I think Uncle Pete just fell a rung on Ben's favorite list. So - on to the title of the blog -- Today Ben got his FIRST KILL -- w00tI would have taken a picture - but it was a bloody bloody scene; Ben stomped the guts out - literally - of a poor unsuspecting gecko. His Popo was proud - but a little disappointed when he realized it was done by accident (not the jumping - but the smooshing).. We would have mounted the kill on the wall, but there was nothing left for the taxidermist to work with; even his poor tail twisted off.

To think this poor animal was sacrificed for no reason, we can't use him for food, fuel or decoration - Darn the luck.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Today I took Ben to run some last minute errands b/f packing.. and on the way home.. he starts singing randomly about his daddy and the christmas song.. and the snow.. and it was one of those moments where he was so sweet and so innocent.. then he threw his snack pack at the back of my head..

Anyway - I finally got everything packed and loaded.. and we are waiting with ants in our pants for pete to get home.. so I turned to the trusty piano to keep me occupied.. Pete got me some great books to learn Christmas songs..(favorites to play - little drummer boy, hark the harold, and jingle bells - only b/c I can be lazy and play only the top lines and it still resembles the song).. Back to it -- as I'm struggling to get through Jingle Bells (both lines) Ben says "what songs that" and without missing another beat starts in on the right words and waits ever so patiently for me to get all the notes out so he can finish singing his song..I'm a little (not much but a little) sad that we aren't going to be here next week.. ONLY b/c his school is having a Christmas program and I can only imagine the sweetness that is going to come from the kids on stage.. And Ben had two songs he was to sing with his class.. Oh well -- fish fries and mesquite trees will be much more fun.. right?! If not then playing with cousins will be totally worth it..

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Thursday, December 6, 2007

The first snow is always exciting -- after weeks of freezing cold - why not throw some snow in the mixture... spice things up...I picked Ben up from school today - and he kept telling me it was raining -- No hun that's snow -- No mom its raining -- Sometimes its like i argue with a wall...

Then the snowplows were firetrucks... :D Yep - those are firetrucks.. look at them go! (reason #405 for therapy - snowplows are firetrucks)

Starting with a few days ago -- Ben FINALLY decided the bear puppet rocks -- only b/c I told him he gets to put his hands in the bears guts..... (watch for upcoming video).. (and reason #406)

Before the snow - it was cold- so we (me) made forts in the living room and then we (ben) tore them down

After getting Ben all ready to go outside - he darts back to the living room declaring he needs a hat.. -- Ben you already have your hat -- No mom, my hat -- and he comes back with the Green Bowl on his head.. Ughh

Monday, December 3, 2007

That's only a few words I have for him - THE BEN - today... He might possibly be growing out of nap time.. *damsel in distress voice* WHAT WILL I DO?! *end voice*

Today after shopping, and the park (it was actually warm enough - 47 - to go) it was time to lay down and take a little night night... but the BEN decided it was time to play 'possum until I walked out of the room... and then he pulled toys on the bed - and proclaimed he was PLAYING... after the 3rd trip back there to tuck his hiney in.. I quickly left the room to a little boy whimpering 'I need a hug - I need a hug' over and over... It made me giggle - Only b/c it was his tactic to suck me back in the room and continue to stay awake a few more minutes... Oh the drama of a two year old..

He likes the phrase "I'm freezin too" even if no one said "I'm freezing" first..

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

While in Kentucky Ben's Gammy and Papa/PawPa/Grampa (not sure what Ben will settle in on) gave the boys each a truck hauler with 3 cars.. They are great wooden toys and Ben just loves playing with them...

His Gammy also delivered a toy box we had requested to be painted.. It's so fantastic... I think (know) Pete and I were more excited about the toy box - but if you look close - in the bottom left corner of the box - Gammy painted OUR BOAT!! Such a nice surprise -- it does make me a little sad though... only because its not the "dragonfly".. (yes I STILL miss my jet boat)

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Ben did so well on our road trip to Kentucky. It was great to see the Carter/Crawford clan. Aunt Laura and Uncle Pete were kind enough to open their (kid free) home to two toddlers. I'm not sure what all the kids destroyed -- besides purple crayon on a sofa. Send the bill to One Papillion Way, Leesburg Arkansas. The boys seemed to get along great -- if getting along means Ben bullying Jacob. I only witnessed 1 full body smother, 2 headlocks, and 13,000 "No that's mine"View photos of our trip

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A few days ago - Ben and I decided to do a little painting. We started off with some finger painting -- and hand printing...of course -- I had to join in the fun.. that's part of the reason to have a kid, right? So I can act like a kid with him... Yeah - but then the obsessive compulsive disorder kicked in and I had to back off b/c he wasn't painting the way I thought he needed to be....Once with freedom to enjoy... He painted this dandy picture of what I interpret to be a Christmas tree... a purple present.. and a streak of Santa flying across the sky..What a clever little fella..

In other news -- Ben and Pete were taking turns counting numbers to 20... and when Pete stopped participating - Ben starts with "uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis..... " I think we've had enough Dora and Diego.... I did not know my child could count in spanish... and to 10!!!

Friday, November 2, 2007

This morning - we went to the park.. and we played for a bit.. until we were uncomfortable by the wind and chilly air temps...
But during our brief play at the park.. we had FUN... Ben climbed the ladders, slid the slides, swung the swings, and spun on the spin-n-get-sick....

*notice in this pic - creepy guy walking from behind the tree while little blue shoes are taking a tumble after..
Ben cracks me up ~ that face is the best!!
Later in the day -- Ben was playing inside.. (in more than one way..)
We have this toy box for downstairs toys....it's nice and light weight and can easily be folded up..

Here - you can see it holds the toys and books very efficiently

And then you have Ben - who likes to DUMP the toys - toss the books and climb right inside..

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

We almost didn't go Trick or Treating. I convinced Ben to put his Dragon on after supper.. and I guess it was a little warm in the house.. and I wasn't fast enough getting him outside to the cool 50 degree temp., and the fleece of the costume was a little warm on his body and he started taking it off.. and then REFUSED to put it back on...
I tackled him and strapped it on anyway - all while he was kicking and screaming -- NO WAY am I going to slave over this costume and HE NOT WEAR IT! **grin** We quickly took him out back - b/c it was too early to go trick or treating still - but we wanted to give him time to transform into DRAGON BOY...
We walked up the street to see if his buddies - Hagen and Layla - were home.. (they weren't) and he decided this was going to be fun! He LOVED the reaction people gave him.. and he was having fun carrying his pumpkin and light... and from the top of the hill he would scream "DAD DAD DAD..." and run all the way down to the house.. exploding with information that he just had to tell his DAD...

Ben and his first trick or treat house... (and their groovy jack-o-lantern)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

We made a book for Ben to help with face/name recognition before the grand Florida trip this summer. It has a picture of everyone, and he used to love to flip through it and tell us over and over who everyone was. The coolness sorta wore off when the Florida 90th Birthday book appeared on the coffee table... Never fear - SuperBen is near - and today he runs like a straight line wind to the dining room (were we are slaving over this ridiculous dragon costume) and excitedly announces...
"Dad Dad - picture book"
"that's right Ben, that's your picture book"
"Dad Dad - The ChooChoo train man"
I just about fell out of my chair....
as a reference - the ChooChoo train man - and Ben (at Easter)

~~
2nd week of Wee School - and Ben is doing really well... He's singing (the correct words) more to a lot of the kid songs .. and hits more of the letters when he sings his ABCs. He's also annunciating his words more clearly. So that's all great and fantastic, right.... But he's picked up some bad habits..
He now makes this 'pfftt' noise with his tongue sorta stinking out -- you know like motor boating.. problem is - he uses it only when he's back talking... Pete or I will tell him to do something and we get 'pffttt'd" on..
Do you realize how hard it is to keep a straight face when Ben "pfftt's" on Pete and Pete puts Ben to time-out... OH MY GOODNESS... the tears and drama... all because of a little "pfftt"

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The other day I went next door and took a ton of pics of baby-girl, Amriel, and her grandaddy - before he left to go back to Arkansas. And it reminded me how much fun it is to be out taking pics that today I bought Ben a sweater and we went out back to take some photos after nap time. Yeah = not the smartest thing in the world... he was very uncooperative.. But we still had fun playing with the girls and the leaves and tossing around the football...

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Ben was moved up to Wee-school from the Toddler Class... And even though he leaves mason and hank behind, he has a new friend - EMILY!! Part of the move was because He's doing so good in the potty department and breaking out of his shell by actually talking to the teachers. The wee-school kids are a bit older and therefor have a larger vocabulary so we will be entertained the next few weeks as Ben learns new words (and habits) from his new 'classmates'.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Pete found this great "Mr Potato Head" ensemble for pumpkin decorating the other day and Ben had a blast watching us put it together.. He helped a bit after we got all the holes in the pumpkin and assembled... took it apart and let him go at it - He thought it was great fun until I made the "arrrrr" sound.. and for some reason the pumpkin pirate arrrr scared the snot out of him.. and now he wants nothing to do with it.. I tried to get him to sit next to Mr Pumpkin head so I could have a pic.. but - no sir-ee...

It's been getting cooler -- and I tried my hardest to convince Ben to wear his cowboy hat the other day -- but he's over that phase I guess.. He wanted nothing to do with it - threw it down and walked away..I have no idea what to do for Halloween costume this year. Ben refuses to wear anything on his head or face.. and it such a snob when it comes to clothes...
Pete suggests he should be something scary.. and the only thing scary Ben knows is a vacuum cleaner...

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Everyone by now knows the news of the 'new truck'.... (yay tundra)
~ However you might not know how much the kid LOVES "his" new truck
Last night Pete got home and suggested that if Ben was good and did x,y,and z then we would take a ride in the new truck. 1 hour later Ben runs out of the bathroom screaming RIDE NEW TRUCK RIDE NEW TRUCK, LETS GO... *rolling eyes* crazy kid.. But it doesn't stop there...
He was crazy excited to go to school today! why you ask? Because he got to ride in the new truck! and he was telling us about it before we even went downstairs to leave.
There's more - I went to pick him up from school.. and Ben was sitting on the stairs as usual, reading books, while the others kids go down for nap. He jumps up runs the books to Miss Corey and runs back to me.. Throws out his arms like he is going to squeeze me, then quickly drops them to his sides grabs his bag and says "come on mommy - new truck"
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME RIGHT??!! Not hi mommy I love you mommy ... hrumph!
But we also realized its a bit of an incentive too.... We went out to the park and Ben was dawdling and falling WAY behind until I said "hey ben, you want to go ride in the new truck?" It was like there was fire in the kids pants, i swear to you I've never seen him run so fast..

Sunday, October 7, 2007

My office buys annual membership zoo passes for a few privileged people (that would include me). And we've been a few times.. but not enough... so this afternoon we took Ben. And the kid LOVED IT... granted you've all seen the pics of him at the zoo this year.. but this time we went to "The Kingdom of the Nights" which is below the "Desert Dome" and its full of bats, alligators, snakes, turtles, and all kinds of other night time animals. He was a little freaked out when we got too close to the glass when the snakes were actually moving.. but for the most part it was cool...
We also got to see the 4mo old baby Siberian tigers and their 3-legged momma... (not sure of the significance in that information but the zoo decided it was significant enough to post- so I did too :D )... And for the first time in ALL of our zoo patronage.. we rode the steam engine train.... I wish I would have had a camera for this one instance only.... When Ben finally realized that we were telling him he was ON A TRAIN - and we were going to RIDE THE TRAIN.. the kids smile got HUGE and he was ecstatic.. HE LOVED the train... (don't know where he got that from)...

**
His favorite toy of the week - His handmade prized wooden truck from Uncle Bill...
He will even tell you "uncle bill truck - not uncle pete" *shrugs shoulders* - who really understands why???

Saturday, October 6, 2007

It was high 80s today - and a bit windy - but who cares about wind when its OCTOBER and we are still hitting the lake!
We made it out to the lake before we remembered the towels sitting in the laundry room... whoops. The water was a bit chilly -- but since it was so nice outside - we ALL enjoyed the water a little.... Even Ben decided to jump in a few times after testing the water at the end of the boat... You can see more pictures in his online albums....

Friday, October 5, 2007

This morning - Ben and I decided to have a little Ben-fun.. We went the one of the local pumpkin patch kingdoms... (Valas Pumpkin Patch) We went on a hayride, rode the tractor pulled wagons thru the 'farm' and watched the Pigtucky Derby... We saw all of the goats, calf, donkey, goats, llama, camel, and goats... Ben liked all the animals besides the goats -- and there were LOTS of goats..

Ben also got a haircut this morning -- this was the "I want to keep the bowl cut I just want it faded in ok.. " cut... and the "I'm a freakin idiot" hairstylists interpretation.. But what good does it do to scream and yell after the first chunk in already gone

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Yesterday - Ben and I played at the park for a few hours - and oddly enough there were A LOT of kids there. Most of them older than Ben - but he didn't care.
I was pushing the spin-and-get-sick (merry-go-round) and Ben was doing his fake HARHAR HAR laugh -and so another kid started too but added a snorting noise... Ben's repsonse -- HAR HAR HAR "oink oink" har har har --- he actaully said OINK OINK... The little stinker...

Sunday, September 30, 2007

The last few times Ben has made stinks on the potty - i gave him a (very small) spoonful of ice cream as an incentive. Today Pete and I were in the kitchen fixing brunch... and Ben runs up to me - squeezes my leg and tells me he needs ice cream - over and over -- and I was telling him ok as soon as you go I'll give you some.. He didn't say anything else.. we ate -- goofed around -- and an hour or so later Pete went to Ben's bathroom and HOLY SMOKES there in the middle on the potty float some big ole STINKERS! Ben went all by himself! Another proud momma moment..

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Yesterday we went to a store to buy the latest Wii release -- Dance Dance Revolution... while we were looking thru the games, Ben - who had insisted on a piggy back ride - starts hollering (and i mean HOLLERING) "Boogie mom Boogie - SEE"
He points to the game on the shelf and I praise him appropriately for being too darn observant. Next thing I know he's hollering it again.. UGH - I already know its there get off me.. right? No I was wrong - he was pointing in the other direction - at the TV - it was on the demo - and after we acknowledged that Boogie was on tv - he started moving his hands as if he were playing... Oye! (I should mention we haven't played Boogie in over a month! But it is Ben's FAVORITE game that we play)

- Today we were in the car - and I was telling Pete a story about me telling a bunch of girls about how much I yell -- and Ben pipes in from the back seat "that's mommy"
LIKE HE KNOWS HOW MUCH I YELL!!

- BEN PEED OUTSIDE (on purpose) for the first time Friday!!
We were out Geocaching friday afternoon and had just found our loot in the middle of a shrub fort - Ben tells us he needs to go - and he got to squat right there in the trees -- A mommas proud moment.

- New words/phrases to his vocabulary - "Left turn ahead, mommy" "you have reached your destination" -- We have tomtom to thanks for these ---- The other words that tickle us are "fantastic"

- And lastly - This morning he was signing (sign language not a typo) and telling me animals and sounds -- elephant, dog, cat - yada yada yada right... and then he goes - "daddy - (and makes a farting noise) I thought I was going to fall out of bed!!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

We had a wonderful weekend at the lake - yet AGAIN. The camping was perfect - and the boy was sweet -
We (and by we I mean me) left lamby (one of the 5 he owns) at the house, and I didn't realize it until it was time to go to bed. So we improvised and gave him my rashgaurd shirt. It's sorta silky feeling. But he didn't really fall for it -- when he woke up the next morning he told us - mommy's lamby shirt... So we ran out to the nearest store and purchased a new lamby - but this one was different - as it is a dog and not a bear - (the original was a lamb).. and he woke up Saturday night and in his drowsiness calls out for "blue lamby dog" - i could only laugh.